Michael Harper’s Tech & Art Blog

Samba, http://us1.samba.org/samba/,  is widely spoken of throughout the Linux community. It is an efficient way of sharing your network resources like printers and shared drives with Windows computers. I even managed to share my 500 GB USB drive that was attached to my Ubuntu desktop. I installed the latest version of Samba from the Synaptic Package Manager in Ubuntu 8.10. After installation, it installs to the System>Admin menu. Open Samba and take a gander at the window. It has been a few weeks since I installed it but I believe that Samba shares your default Ubuntu printer automatically. Which is great. Anyways, click “Add Share” and select the directory, folder or even USB device (found under the “Media” directory). On the Basic tab, make your share writable and visible and, on the Advanced tab, select your specific user or even allow anyone on your network to see your share.

Sometimes Windows wireless printing has been a breeze. Other times, like today, it is not. My host computer is a Dell XPS 420 running Vista Home Premium SP1. My wireless computers are a Toshiba Satellite M49 running Windows XP Home Edition SP3 and a Dell Mini 9 (Inspiron 910) running Windows XP Home Edition Sp3. This is often a mystery to me as I have had mixed results on many systems large and small. On my home and work network, it was as easy as turning on file and print sharing across the networked computers and then browsing and adding a new network printer form the client machine. I’ll update this article as I attempt to find the answer.

I realize I’m more than one week behind on this post but it was time for a VirtualBox shout-out. In case you’re not familiar with VBox, it is an open-source, virtualization software package that allows you do some amazing things. VirtualBox is available for the majority of OSs available and it’s free. As you might have read, I recently switched over to Ubuntu Linux on my laptop and work desktop. So far so good if you exlude the fact that I use Adobe CS3 for work and play around the clock. Yes, I’ve tried Wine (Windows Emulator) for Linux but it doesn’t meet my standards - I needed full compatibility. I needed software that would run the Adobe apps I needed to run in a somewhat optimized and efficient manner. That’s when I discovered virtualization, or, the act of virtualizing an entire computer and OS on your current computer and within your operating system. To summarize, I’m running Windows on my Linux laptop thanks to VirtualBox. The beauty of the software is that I can run “seamless” mode which creates the illusion that a Windows application is actually running on my Ubuntu desktop. To switch gears entirely, I can just run full-screen mode and tuck my Ubuntu desktop out-of-sight while I Photoshop away and create websites with Dreamweaver and Flash Professional. It is fairly impressive as far as switching between Windows and Ubuntu as if it were just another app. The primary OS (in my case Ubuntu) is referred to as the “Host OS” whereas the secondary OSs (Windows, OS X, Solaris, etc.) are referred to as the “Guest OSs”. You can add as many Guest OSs as you would like. The OSs share the resources on your machine (RAM, processors, hard drive space, etc.) which can all be fine-tuned and adjusted as necessary to give you the performance you need. Another added feature is the ability to “save the current machine state” and essentially hit the pause button on your guest OS, saving the layout and current view in your guest OS. This put an end to my dual-boot and multi-boot OSs. The next step for me is to optimize my virtualization process to get the machines running at full capacity but that’s a completely different post.

Ever wanted to share your Verizon, AT&T or Sprint mobile boradband card? It is possible, though not practical, to share your broadband with others through a wired or wireless medium.There are many service provider’s who offer these mobile broadband solutions for your laptop, mobile device or even desktop. There are a few things to keep in mind before beginning this project:

1. Doing this may be a violation of your EULA (end-user license agreement), so please check with your service provider before continuing.

Recently, a friend asked me for my opinion of some of the latest HTPCs (AKA: Media Center PCs). I told him what I knew of the technology and pointed him to an HTPC manufacturer that I had seen featured in PC Magazine named Moneual. That spurred an interest in his fascination that led to our thorough research of HTPC makers and distributors and the final decision to purchase an Antec HTPC case. In this upcoming tutorial, I will show you how to find the perfect case, components and OS needed to get your HTPC up and running. You may already have the parts necessary to get started but, in my personal opinion, the case is what makes these machines perfect for any living room.